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THE GAME

Mission-driven horror expedition

WORLDVIEW

Humanity is being manipulated by a higher-dimensional or cybernetic controlling force. Human workers are not honored explorers; they are managed, replaceable labor bodies.

You are a worker. Your job is to enter the Maze, recover Pages, and return. What the Pages truly are — and why the controlling authority values them so highly — is not something you are meant to understand.

CORE RULE: SOUND IS DEATH

Every action you take in the Maze generates noise. Noise feeds the predator's tracking model. The louder and more continuous your noise profile, the faster and more aggressively it hunts you. Walking is safe. Running starts to give you away. Opening doors, using tools, breaking objects — every time you choose efficiency, you also choose to let the predator get closer.

SOUND TIER SYSTEM

Drag the slider or click a tier to see how noise changes your situation. Each tier corresponds to a different detection distance and chase speed for the predator.

TIER THREAT CONTEXT

TIER 1

At this tier, the predator can hear you from ~30 studs away

Chase speed multiplier: 0x

Recommended: 自由行动，保持安静移动。

TIER 2

At this tier, the predator can hear you from ~80 studs away

Chase speed multiplier: 0.5x

Recommended: 减少奔跑，注意环境声音反馈。

TIER 3

At this tier, the predator can hear you from ~150 studs away

Chase speed multiplier: 1x

Recommended: 立即停止当前动作，寻找掩体。

TIER 4

At this tier, the predator can hear you from ~300 studs away

Chase speed multiplier: 1.5x

Recommended: 闭嘴。不要动。不要跑。

HEADLINE THREAT: THE LISTENER

DESIGNATION: PREDATOR-01

"The Listener"

Headline Predator — Sound-Driven Hunter

BEHAVIOR PATTERN

The predator enters a tracking state when triggered by noise events. Sustained noise amplifies pursuit pressure. Silence and stillness degrade its tracking lock. It does not know everything — but it knows what you give it. Understanding its state transitions is the foundation of all survival knowledge.

KNOWN IN-GAME CLUE FRAGMENT

"...the previous crew — what was left of them — we found the recorder. You can hear it in the background. Not footsteps. Just... approach. They were too loud. They didn't know. They ran, and it found them every time."

PERCEPTION: AUDITORY ONLY

This threat does not rely on vision. It navigates and hunts exclusively through sound events. It does not need to see you to begin its approach. It hears you. The diagram below shows how sound propagates through the Maze — and how dangerous your noise is at various distances.

SOUND PROPAGATION MODEL

[ CHASE — IDLE / TRACKING / INVESTIGATING / HUNTING / LETHAL ]

CHASE CLOSURE

1. Player generates readable noise

2. Threat awakens or closes distance

3. Player realizes they are helping the hunt succeed

4. Player chooses: continue panic, or exercise restraint

5. Outcome becomes a readable cause-and-effect chain

FAIRNESS GUARANTEES

  • 01Before first high-pressure contact, the player encounters at least one warning read
  • 02Death cannot come primarily from completely unreadable instant locks
  • 03During a chase, there must always exist room for "doing better to survive longer"
  • 04After death, the player should be able to identify what to do less of next time

RUN → MAZE → RETURN

PHASE 01

RUN

The camp and wilderness layer. Prepare, regroup, and gather clues. Optional discoveries in the wilderness can change how you interpret danger before entering the Maze.

PHASE 02

MAZE

The lethal execution layer. Face high-threat chase rules that punish panic and ignorance. Grab Pages under pressure and decide whether to push deeper or retreat.

PHASE 03

RETURN

Bring Pages back to camp. Death costs something real — you lose what you carried. Successful return feels like progress, but the loop continues.

PAGES — THE CURRENCY

Pages are the surface economy of Liminal. They are your mission objective, your camp currency, and your reason to risk going deeper. Use Pages to acquire better tools for the next round.

But ask yourself: why does the authority value these Pages so highly? What is really being harvested?

THE EXTRACTION DECISION

THE EXTRACTION DECISION

Not every round should drain you completely. Bringing back the Pages you already have is itself a high-quality decision. The tension between "get more" and "get out now" should always be real.

Survivors attempt to bring resources back before the round expires. Across rounds, you gradually understand the rules that govern survival. This understanding is your true progression.

TOOLS: JUDGMENT, NOT REPLACEMENT

Tools improve spatial readability and execution stability. They give you more restrained, more confident ways to act.

Tools should NOT: erase threat rules, make knowledge obsolete, or let you believe "better gear" is the core growth path.

AFTERMATH: WHAT DEATH TEACHES

When you die, you lose what you carried. But you should never lose what you learned. If you can say "next time I will sprint less" or "next time I will listen before opening that door," the death was not wasted.

The question after every failed extraction: what did you do that helped it find you?

THE 5-ROUND ARC

[1]

ROUND 1 — Establish mission, route, threat suspicion

[2]

ROUNDS 2-3 — The impulse to bet higher with growing understanding

[3]

ROUND 4 — Pressure escalates; greed and preservation tear at each other

[4]

ROUND 5 — Closing pressure should feel distinct, not just another run

CORE PHILOSOPHY

Liminal is not about becoming stronger. It is about becoming less blind inside a system that treats human beings as expendable exploration bodies.

The player's strongest real growth is cognitive, not stat-based. The final narrative realization should be that the player was only ever a tool.